The winner of the gold medal for the best beginner powder skier, 2 days combined, goes to: Miss T!
Last weekend was the 2nd weekend that she went off the easy flat pisted slopes, into a bit more crazy and for sure more difficult snow. And she did a super good work skiing in powder half way up to her knees for the first time ever, falling, getting up again, hearing instructions screamed from the three others in our group, taking everything with a smile, a very tired smile at the end of the first day. So tired, that the old man running the cabin to get back down to the station rubbed her hands as she looked so dead ;)
And then the 2nd day, back out again for hours of lovely skiing in even more difficult conditions. Sunnier than the day before, but windy, meaning new snow to ski in over and over again even though we went down the same slopes, as the wind had almost completely covered our traces when we came back down 20 minutes later. Super nice, but not the easiest conditions for a powder beginner as heavier than fresh powder and hence meaning that you need more speed, which is quite scary when you start out. So the gold price definitely belongs to T! You go girl :D
The gold medal (yes, I only give out gold medals) for the best false beginner ever goes to: Mr. H!
From having problems getting down a blue piste on Saturday mid-day, to skiing down wind-blown powder on Sunday afternoon - wow, what an achievement!!! H was far out of his league on these slopes and fell over and over again. But just picked himself up and continued downhill. Listened carefully to all advice and was not scared of giving it a try. Of course, it did help that there were hardly and rocks or trees to speak about, only thick layers of white gold everywhere. Mr. H did look slightly dead at the end of the day, but that's how you learn!
The gold medal for the most patient instructor, and for the best organiser of skiing weekends, goes to: Mr. P!
And the gold medal for the best boyfriend ever goes to.... well, my N :D
A lovely weekend of skiing up in Lenk/Simmental. A new discovery, and surprisingly like last weekend and excellent discovery! Full of Bernoise people that seems to prefer the hard boring people-filled pistes to the beautiful fluffy white gold 20 meters to the side - 'tant mieux' for us as one says in French. All the better for us! Super weekend!!!!!!!! Thank you!
Friday 26 February 2010
Things I like...
I like when walking to the car, half asleep in the morning, he slips his hand into mine.
Monday 15 February 2010
St. Valentine's day
We're not big on celebrating St. Valentine's day, and after a perfect happy day on the Saturday (with a super day of skiing on sunny snowy slopes and a nice Peruvian dinner to celebrate A, with the best Pisco Sour ever and some Latin dances), we felt mostly like a cuddly slow day on Sunday the 14th.
However, after a short trip to China, we ended up in an Italian restaurant in the old town for a fondant au chocolat - a marvelous taste explosion of chocolate, served beautifully decorated with 2 hearts! So, we can actually say that we celebrated this day, by accident admittedly, but still...
And yes, I also got one of the nicest comments ever by N later in the evening - a comment that warmed my heart a lot more than flowers or chocolates could ever do :D
Did you celebrate Valentine's? And how did you do it?
However, after a short trip to China, we ended up in an Italian restaurant in the old town for a fondant au chocolat - a marvelous taste explosion of chocolate, served beautifully decorated with 2 hearts! So, we can actually say that we celebrated this day, by accident admittedly, but still...
And yes, I also got one of the nicest comments ever by N later in the evening - a comment that warmed my heart a lot more than flowers or chocolates could ever do :D
Did you celebrate Valentine's? And how did you do it?
The quickest trip to China ever
Yesterday for lunch, we went to China for a few hours.
After about 20 minutes walk including crossing the bridge in the cold wind, China here we were! A lovely dim sum brunch, a very warm restaurant, servers who did not speak French - ahhh what a nice environmentally friendly trip :) And what a lovely way to spend a cold windy Sunday.
Highly recommended! Who wants to join next time? The more the merrier as we could taste even more dishes than the 6 that N and I indulged in!
After about 20 minutes walk including crossing the bridge in the cold wind, China here we were! A lovely dim sum brunch, a very warm restaurant, servers who did not speak French - ahhh what a nice environmentally friendly trip :) And what a lovely way to spend a cold windy Sunday.
Highly recommended! Who wants to join next time? The more the merrier as we could taste even more dishes than the 6 that N and I indulged in!
Sunday 14 February 2010
It's snowing again / more powder to the people
Yesterday we had a fantastic day skiing in lots of lovely powder, under a clear blue sky. Quite a cold day actually, but with all that sunshine and powder, we forgot about it (although I was clearly reminded of the coldness during the first 20 minutes in the car afterward as my toes, especially the big ones, came back to life with, let's say, just a little bit of pain...).
We headed to Praz de Lys/Sommand in France, a new experience for most of our group, for once quite a small group with just four of us skiing together, and another three meeting up for lunch. Very nice to be skiing with a group of just four as we hardly had to wait for one another and all fit into the chair lift (this year, the group of friends tagging along has often touched around ten or more people, very nice for socializing, but not ideal for skiing).
Initially Praz de Lys did not seem like a fantastic place for a fun day of playful skiing, actually it looked more like a heaven for beginners (and this was also the reason why the three additional friends who were there had chosen the place) with some ok slopes for the rest of the group. But we decided to give it a try. And what luck that we did!
The day started with about 40 minutes lost in traffic on the way there, 40 minutes under which I was telling N, and myself, that look at the sun - at least we did not stay in Geneva under the stratus the whole day, but instead we are on our way to a day in sunshine. The idea being that if the station was really boring, well we would camp out on a terrace and enjoy seeing the sun for the first time in a couple of weeks.
And at the beginning of the day, once we finally had arrived and had managed to get skiing tickets after loosing close to another hour (the machines did not work in one place, so we had to drive to another etc), it looked like this was going to be more of a terrace day indeed. The lifts were old, slow, and not very steep, hence the place really felt like beginners paradise. On top, my calves had started to cramp up as they like to do when I spend too much time with the boots on before starting to ski.
Imagine therefore how presently surprised we were when, after taking the first chair lift, we went off and tasted wonderful fresh fluffy snow! The conditions were perfect: sunshine to keep us warm and for perfect visibility, cold enough to keep the snow fresh, great mounds of snow with many fresh parts left to allow us to trace our own descents, a calm station with mostly beginners meaning that we shared the fun parts with only a handful of people, and just four of us to allow for maximum skiing. A big smile quickly placed itself on my face as I floated down the first powder, and stayed stuck the whole day no matter the lengthy and unfriendly waiter at lunch, my frozen toes hurting in those horrible torture instruments called ski boots, or any other small hiccups (were there any?).
The smile stayed put only to erupt into laughter at regular intervals, and into small yelps when a surprising jump came my way or the mound of snow made me loose control and taste some fresh powder :)
It was also the first real day of off piste skiing for T, and she did a remarkable job going down that first slope. A bit tense, a bit scared, partly convinced that she did not have the skills (she does), and with advice streaming at her from 3 directions (I would have lost my temper after half a slope, but she remained calm for three!), and yet she went down, and not just once either. 3 times on that same slope, and also parts of slopes elsewhere, accumulating to almost half the day spent outside of the pistes. Bravo!
So as you can read - we had an incredible day of skiing!! And today it's snowing again! This season is in fact incredible - colder and with more snow than ever before (well almost) in Geneva, freezing temperatures at work, unhappy people walking around cold, in fact a much longer winter than usual (by mid-February, you can usually see the first people in bikini on sunny days), but all amounting to perfect skiing conditions!
Lovely!
We headed to Praz de Lys/Sommand in France, a new experience for most of our group, for once quite a small group with just four of us skiing together, and another three meeting up for lunch. Very nice to be skiing with a group of just four as we hardly had to wait for one another and all fit into the chair lift (this year, the group of friends tagging along has often touched around ten or more people, very nice for socializing, but not ideal for skiing).
Initially Praz de Lys did not seem like a fantastic place for a fun day of playful skiing, actually it looked more like a heaven for beginners (and this was also the reason why the three additional friends who were there had chosen the place) with some ok slopes for the rest of the group. But we decided to give it a try. And what luck that we did!
The day started with about 40 minutes lost in traffic on the way there, 40 minutes under which I was telling N, and myself, that look at the sun - at least we did not stay in Geneva under the stratus the whole day, but instead we are on our way to a day in sunshine. The idea being that if the station was really boring, well we would camp out on a terrace and enjoy seeing the sun for the first time in a couple of weeks.
And at the beginning of the day, once we finally had arrived and had managed to get skiing tickets after loosing close to another hour (the machines did not work in one place, so we had to drive to another etc), it looked like this was going to be more of a terrace day indeed. The lifts were old, slow, and not very steep, hence the place really felt like beginners paradise. On top, my calves had started to cramp up as they like to do when I spend too much time with the boots on before starting to ski.
Imagine therefore how presently surprised we were when, after taking the first chair lift, we went off and tasted wonderful fresh fluffy snow! The conditions were perfect: sunshine to keep us warm and for perfect visibility, cold enough to keep the snow fresh, great mounds of snow with many fresh parts left to allow us to trace our own descents, a calm station with mostly beginners meaning that we shared the fun parts with only a handful of people, and just four of us to allow for maximum skiing. A big smile quickly placed itself on my face as I floated down the first powder, and stayed stuck the whole day no matter the lengthy and unfriendly waiter at lunch, my frozen toes hurting in those horrible torture instruments called ski boots, or any other small hiccups (were there any?).
The smile stayed put only to erupt into laughter at regular intervals, and into small yelps when a surprising jump came my way or the mound of snow made me loose control and taste some fresh powder :)
It was also the first real day of off piste skiing for T, and she did a remarkable job going down that first slope. A bit tense, a bit scared, partly convinced that she did not have the skills (she does), and with advice streaming at her from 3 directions (I would have lost my temper after half a slope, but she remained calm for three!), and yet she went down, and not just once either. 3 times on that same slope, and also parts of slopes elsewhere, accumulating to almost half the day spent outside of the pistes. Bravo!
So as you can read - we had an incredible day of skiing!! And today it's snowing again! This season is in fact incredible - colder and with more snow than ever before (well almost) in Geneva, freezing temperatures at work, unhappy people walking around cold, in fact a much longer winter than usual (by mid-February, you can usually see the first people in bikini on sunny days), but all amounting to perfect skiing conditions!
Lovely!
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